Subterranean deposits of coal often contain substantial quantities of entrained methane gas. Limited production and use of methane gas from coal deposits has occurred for many years. Substantial obstacles, however, have frustrated more extensive development and use of methane gas deposits in coal seams. The foremost problem in producing methane gas from coal seams is that while coal seams may extend over large areas of up to several thousand acres, the coal seams are not very thick, varying from a few inches to several meters thick. Thus, while the coal seams are often relatively near the surface, vertical wells drilled into the coal deposits for obtaining methane gas can only drain a fairly small radius around the coal deposits. Further, coal deposits may not be amenable to pressure fracturing and other methods often used for increasing methane gas production from rock formations. As a result, once the gas easily drained from a vertical well in a coal seam is produced, further production is limited in volume. Additionally, coal seams are often associated with subterranean water, which typically must be drained from the coal seam in order to produce the methane.